Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1887-11-26

At that instant, lou and clear from the
south, came the whistle Of the engine in
pursuit! 1t was near by and running at
lightning speed. The roll of q thousand
thunlers could not have startled us more.
What could we do: AT tho end where
we had been prying the rail it was bent,
but it was still too firmly fixed for us to
hope to lift it or break it like the last.
But we did the best in our power; we
bent the loose end up still further and put
the fence rail carefully under 1t, with the
hope that it would compel the pursuers
either to stop and adjust it or throw them
from the track, and then piled into the
car and engine with a celebrity born of
long practice, and with one Of its old
bounds that jerked US from our feet-for
Brown and knight threw The valve wide
open-the General bore rs rapidly on.
The impatience of Andrews to reach the
bridge had not been diminished by tho
appearance of this new element in the
situation.
Here OUT pursuers were greatly startled.
Their story had been swiftly told when
they reached Calhoun. and the engine and
tender Of the passenger car, with u re-en-
up the road. Fuller stood on the tender
| of his own train, which was in front, gaz-
ing intently forward to see if there was
any dangerous obstacle or break in the
track, such as they had already many
times encountered. Soon lie behold us at
work with feelings which cannot be de-
scribed. Before getting near enough to
see our number, we had mounted and
sped away, and he saw with exultation
that we had not broken the track, and
that there seemed to be no obstruction.
With fu0 speed he ran on till too close to
stop, and then beheld what he believed, at
first, to be a broken rail and gave himself
up for lost; cut 1t was on the inside of q
curve, and as an engine running rapidly
throws most Of it's weight on the outside,
when he ran o n 1t the bent rail was only
straitened down, and they were safely
on the other side Of this danger. The
next train, which followed almost immc-
diately after, did not notice the obstruc.
ton ut all. There is scarcely u doubt
that two minutes more, enabling lis to
finish getting a rail up at this point, would
have given the control of the day into our
hands, for there were no more trains on
the road either to delay us or to be turned
back after us. But as it was, the Texas
pressed on after us without the slightest
loss Of Roadway.
Inc coming OF CnlS Train before the
track was torn up was by far the most Sc.
rious misfortune that we had yet encoun-
tered. But might it not still be overcome!
The plan which first presented itself to the
undismayed spirit Of Andrews was to use
two of our cars as projectiles and hurl
them back at the enemy. This was more
in accordance with his genius, which de,
lighted in strategy, than the plain course
which most Of the soldiers would have
preferred; that is, u straight out md out
fight with the pursuing train. Accord.
ingly our engine wa reversed-coull We
have selected n down grade the chance Of
success would have been better, but we
We're coming so near the bridge that W,
could not delay to choosc-and when til.
speed in this way had been checked and
the pursuing train was quite close alC
still going fast, w uncoupled and bounded
on again. But the skillful pursucrs were
not thus to DO beaten. They saw what
they were about, and checking their head
way when tho car was dropped, they alst
reversed, and coming up to it with molcr
ate force, coupled on, which was easier
because their tender was in front.